Actuated optical element for light beam scanning device

ABSTRACT

A light beam scanning device includes a lens element assembly which dynamically adjusts a divergence of the beam. The lens element assembly can include multiple lens elements, one or more of which translates parallel to the light beam to adjust beam divergence. Divergence adjustment can include adjusting the beam divergence along one or more cross sectional axes of the beam. Beam divergence can be adjusted between consecutive scans, during a scan, etc. Beam divergence can be adjusted based on the field of view and scan rate. Beam divergence adjustment can enable dynamic adjustment of the spot size of the beam, which can enable the apparatus to adjust between scanning a wide divergence beam to detect objects in a scene and scanning a narrow divergence beam to generate detailed point clouds of the detected objects. Beam divergence adjustment can enable adjustment of reflection point intensity, enabling detection of low-reflectivity objects.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

This disclosure relates generally to light beam scanning and, moreparticularly, to providing images, mapping, etc. of scenes via lightbeam scanning.

Description of the Related Art

Beam scanning, also referred to herein as light beam scanning, includesdirecting a light beam at an object and determining a distance to theobject based on a “time of flight” between an emitter of the light beamand a detector of the reflected light beam. The emitter and detector canbe included in a common device.

Light beam scanning can be used to generate an image, 3D map, etc. ofone or more portions of a scene, including one or more objects in thescene, by scanning a pulsed light beam over the scene and determining aflight time of the light beam pulses between the device and variousparts of the scene. As used herein, generating an image, 3D map, etc. ofone or more portions of a scene includes “image mapping” of the one ormore portions of the scene. In some cases, a 3D map of an object, scene,etc. includes a 3D “point cloud” of multiple individual points ofreflection of light beam pulses off of various surfaces on one or moreobjects located in a scene. A light beam scanning device can, in somecases, emit a pulsed light beam which is “scanned” over a field of viewof the device by a “scanner”. The device can detect and process thevarious reflected light beam pulses which are reflected from varioussurfaces located within the field of view and received at a detector todetermine the position, within the field of view, of each of the variouspoints on the object from which the light beam pulses were reflected.

SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS

Some embodiments provide an apparatus which includes a light beamscanning device which scans a light beam, within a scan range, over ascene that is within a field of view of the scan range and generates animage map of at least a portion of the scene, based at least in partupon a time of flight of the light beam to and from one or more pointswithin the scene. The light beam scanning device can include a lenselement assembly which dynamically adjusts a divergence of the lightbeam. In some embodiments, the lens element assembly can includemultiple lens elements, and one or more of the lens elements can betranslated, relative to at least one other of the lens elements and in adirection parallel to a direction of the light beam, to implementdynamic divergence adjustment. In some embodiments, dynamicallyadjusting a divergence of the light beam can include adjusting adiameter of the light beam along one or more axes of the light beam. Insome embodiments, the apparatus can include a scanner which scans thelight beam, received from the lens element assembly, over a selectedfield of view of the scan range at one or more scan rates. In someembodiments, the apparatus can include a controller device whichcontrols the lens element assembly to dynamically adjust the divergenceof the light beam as the light beam is scanned over the selected fieldof view. In some embodiments, the controller device can adjust the lightbeam divergence between separate scans of the light beam over at least aportion of the selected field of view, such that the divergence of thelight beam is different between at least two consecutive scans. In someembodiments, the controller device can adjust the light beam divergenceduring a scan over at least a portion of the selected field of view. Insome embodiments, the controller device controls the lens elementassembly and the scanner to initially scan the light beam over a firstselected field of view of the scan range at a first scan rate and afirst divergence, and subsequently scan the light beam over a secondfield of view, encompassed within a limited region of the first field ofview, at a second scan rate and a second divergence, based at least inpart upon a determined time of flight of the light beam to and from atleast a point located within the second field of view. In someembodiments, to generate the image map of at least a portion of thescene, the light beam scanning device can determine at least a depth,azimuth, and elevation of the portion of the scene, relative to at leasta portion of the light beam scanning device, based at least in part uponthe time of flight of the light beam to and from the point, and anorientation of the scanner. The light beam scanning device can include adetector which receives the light reflected from at least a point withinthe field of view. The detector can include a single-pixel sensorreceives the light reflected from at least a point within the field ofview at a single sensor element. The light beam scanning device caninclude a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) device.

Some embodiments provide a method which includes dynamically adjusting adivergence of a light beam scanned, by a scanner, over a scene that iswithin a field of view of a scan range, such that a map of at least aportion of the scene is generated, based at least in part upon a time offlight of the light beam to and from one or more points within thescene. In some embodiments, dynamic adjustment includes directing thebeam of light to be scanned, by the scanner, over a first field of viewat a first scan rate and at a first divergence and, based at least inpart upon a time of flight of the light beam to and from a particularportion of the scene within the first field of view, directing the beamof light to be scanned, by the scanner, over a second field of view at asecond scan rate and at a second divergence, wherein the second field ofview encompasses a limited region of the first field of view whichincludes the particular portion of the scene. In some embodiments,directing the beam of light to be scanned, by the scanner, over a secondfield of view at a second scan rate and at a second divergence includesselecting the second scan rate and the second divergence based at leastin part upon the time of flight of the light beam to and from theparticular portion of the scene within the first field of view. In someembodiments, dynamically adjusting the divergence of the light beamcomprises adjusting a divergence of at least one axis of the light beam,relative to a divergence of at least one other axis of the light beam.In some embodiments, adjusting the divergence of the light beamcomprises adjusting the divergence of at least one axis of the lightbeam to equal the divergence of at least one other axis of the lightbeam.

Some embodiments provide a method which includes configuring a lightbeam scanning device to scan a light beam having adynamically-adjustable divergence, within a scan range, over a scenethat is within a field of view of the scan range and generate a map ofat least a portion of the scene, based at least in part upon a time offlight of the light beam to and from one or more points within thescene. Such configuring includes coupling a lens element assembly to atleast a portion of the light-beam scanning device, wherein the lenselement assembly is configured to adjust the divergence of the lightbeam. In some embodiments, providing the lens element assembly in alight-beam scanning device includes coupling the lens element assemblyto a location along a pathway of the light beam between a transmitterconfigured to emit the light beam and a scanner configured to scan thelight beam over the field of view of the scan range. In someembodiments, the lens element assembly comprises a plurality of lenselements, wherein at least one of the lens elements is configured to beadjusted along a directional axis which is parallel to a pathway of thelight beam and relative to at least one other of the lens elements toadjust the divergence of the light beam. In some embodiments, theconfiguring includes coupling the lens element assembly to a controllerdevice configured to adjust the at least one of the lens elements basedat least in part upon a time of flight of the light beam to and from oneor more points within the scene. In some embodiments, the configuringcomprises coupling a detector to the light beam scanning device, whereinthe detector is configured to receive the light reflected from at leasta point within the field of view and generate an output indicating atleast the time of flight of the light beam to and from the point, suchthat the light beam device is configured to: determine at least a depth,azimuth, and elevation of the one or more points within the, relative toat least a portion of the light beam scanning device based at least inpart upon the output generated by the detector and an orientation of thescanner; and adjust the divergence of the light beam based at least inpart upon the depth, azimuth, and elevation of the one or more pointswithin the scene.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a light beam scanning device which scans light beamsover a field of view, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2A-B illustrate an emitter which emits a light beam and a lenselement assembly which adjusts the divergence of the beam along one ormore cross sectional axes of the beam, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3A-B illustrate adjusting beam divergence of a sequence of lightbeam pulses scanned by a light beam scanning device over a field of viewin a scan pattern, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates dynamically adjusting beam divergence to generatevariable-resolution image maps of various objects within the field ofview of a light beam scanning device, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates a controller device which can be included in a lightbeam scanning device, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates configuring a light beam scanning device to scan alight beam having a dynamically-adjustable divergence within a scanrange of the device, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates dynamically adjusting a divergence of a light beamscanned, by a light beam scanning device, over a field of view that iswithin a scan range of the light beam scanning device, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example computer system configured to implementaspects of a system and method for light beam scanning, according tosome embodiments.

This specification includes references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment.” The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “inan embodiment” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.Particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined inany suitable manner consistent with this disclosure.

“Comprising.” This term is open-ended. As used in the appended claims,this term does not foreclose additional structure or steps. Consider aclaim that recites: “An apparatus comprising one or more processor units. . . .” Such a claim does not foreclose the apparatus from includingadditional components (e.g., a network interface unit, graphicscircuitry, etc.).

“Configured To.” Various units, circuits, or other components may bedescribed or claimed as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. In suchcontexts, “configured to” is used to connote structure by indicatingthat the units/circuits/components include structure (e.g., circuitry)that performs those task or tasks during operation. As such, theunit/circuit/component can be said to be configured to perform the taskeven when the specified unit/circuit/component is not currentlyoperational (e.g., is not on). The units/circuits/components used withthe “configured to” language include hardware—for example, circuits,memory storing program instructions executable to implement theoperation, etc. Reciting that a unit/circuit/component is “configuredto” perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph, for that unit/circuit/component.Additionally, “configured to” can include generic structure (e.g.,generic circuitry) that is manipulated by software and/or firmware(e.g., an FPGA or a general-purpose processor executing software) tooperate in manner that is capable of performing the task(s) at issue.“Configure to” may also include adapting a manufacturing process (e.g.,a semiconductor fabrication facility) to fabricate devices (e.g.,integrated circuits) that are adapted to implement or perform one ormore tasks.

“First,” “Second,” etc. As used herein, these terms are used as labelsfor nouns that they precede, and do not imply any type of ordering(e.g., spatial, temporal, logical, etc.). For example, a buffer circuitmay be described herein as performing write operations for “first” and“second” values. The terms “first” and “second” do not necessarily implythat the first value must be written before the second value.

“Based On.” As used herein, this term is used to describe one or morefactors that affect a determination. This term does not forecloseadditional factors that may affect a determination. That is, adetermination may be solely based on those factors or based, at least inpart, on those factors. Consider the phrase “determine A based on B.”While in this case, B is a factor that affects the determination of A,such a phrase does not foreclose the determination of A from also beingbased on C. In other instances, A may be determined based solely on B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Introduction

Some embodiments provide an apparatus which includes a light beamscanning device which can be used to generate image maps of variousobjects and scenes within a scan range of the device, where the deviceis configured to at least partially adjust the divergence of a lightbeam, such that a cross sectional area of the beam, also referred toherein as a “beam spot”, is adjusted along the distance travelled by thebeam. Adjusting the beam spot size can include adjusting the beamdivergence such that the beam spot of the beam at a given distance fromthe emitter is adjusted in one or more of size, shape, some combinationthereof, etc. As referred to herein, the size of the cross sectionalarea of a beam can be referred to as the beam spot size of the beam. Asa result, as referred to herein, beam divergence adjustment can bereferred to interchangeably as beam spot size adjustment. Adjustment ofthe beam spot size of a light beam which is scanned over at least someportion of a scan range can enable the apparatus to adjust the scannedbeam between a wide-divergence beam, which can be scanned over a fieldof view to detect objects in the field of view, and a narrow-divergencebeam, which can be scanned over a limited region of the field of view inwhich the detected objects are located to generate a detailed pointcloud of the detected objects. A narrow-divergence beam includes arelatively smaller beam spot size of the beam at a given distance oftravel, relative to a wide-divergence beam, such that the beam spot sizeof a wide-divergence beam is relatively larger, at a given distance ofbeam travel, than that of a narrow-divergence beam. In some embodiments,the apparatus can initially scan a field of view via a wide-divergencebeam, to initially detect objects within the field of view, andsubsequently scan limited regions of the field of view, in which thedetected objects are located, via a narrow-divergence beam. Beamdivergence adjustment can enable adjustment of the intensity of thereflection point, enabling detection of objects with relatively lowreflectivity.

An image map can include a two-dimensional (2D) image of a scene, athree-dimensional (3D) image mapping of a scene, some combinationthereof, or the like. The device can direct a light beam, can include asequence of light beam pulses (referred to herein as a “pulsed lightbeam”), out from the device into a field of view of the device. Thelight beam can travel out from the device and into the field of view,where the beam can be reflected off of one or more points (herein“reflection points”) on various surfaces within the field of view andtravel back, as a reflected beam to a detector included in the device.The detector can receive the reflected light beam, detect the reflectedbeam, and generate an output associated with the detection. Detection ofa reflected beam which is reflected off of a reflection point in thefield of view can comprise detection of the reflection point itself.Such an output can include a determined time that the reflected beam isdetected, an intensity of the detected reflected beam, a travel time(also referred to herein as “flight time”, “time of flight”, etc.) ofthe light beam to between the device and the reflection point, aposition of the reflection point within the field of view of the device,some combination thereof, etc. The position of the reflection pointwithin the field of view can include a determined range (also referredto herein as “depth”, “distance”, etc.) of the reflection point from thedevice, which can be determined based on the flight time of the beambetween the device and the reflection point. In addition, the positionof the reflection point can include an angular position of thereflection point within the field of view. Such an angular position canbe expressed as an azimuth (horizontal angle from the center of thedevice field of view) and an elevation (vertical angle from the centerof the device field of view).

As referred to herein, a “light beam” includes a laser beam which can beemitted by a laser light source. The laser beam can be collimated anddirected in one or more particular directions. In some embodiments, thelight beam scanning device includes one or more light collimatingelements, which can be included in one or more lens elements, whichcontrollably adjust a spatial mode of the light beam. As a result, thecollimated light beam, which can be a collimated laser beam, can exhibitcoherence along the collimation range.

In some embodiments, one or more position properties (depth, azimuth,elevation, etc.) of reflection points detected in a field of view can bedetermined based at least in part upon properties of elements of thelight beam scanning devices other than the detector. For example, theazimuth and elevation of the reflection point detected at detector canbe determined based at least in part upon the azimuth and elevation towhich a scanner device in the light beam scanning device is positionedto direct light beam pulses concurrently with at least a portion of thetime during which the light beam travels between the device and thereflection point. In some embodiments, reflected beam intensity isincluded in the generated output as a property of the reflection point.In some embodiments, reflection point depth is determined based at leastin part upon one or more of reflection point intensity, reflection pointsize, reflection point shape, etc. For example, where a reflection pointis determined, based on detection of a reflected light beam from thereflection point, to have a relatively large surface area and lowintensity, the reflection point can be determined to have a relativelylarge depth within the field of view. It will be understood that theposition of the reflection point can include various position propertiesof the reflection point, including coordinates of the reflection pointwithin the field of view.

Where the light beam is a sequence of pulses, the device can direct thepulses to travel in different directions (e.g., different azimuths andelevations relative to a center of the field of view) from the devicewithin the field of view. The device can include a scanner device, alsoreferred to herein as a “scanner”, which can direct different light beampulses to travel in different directions within the field of view. Insome embodiments, the scanner directs light beam pulses to travel indifferent directions within a field of view which is smaller than, andincluded within, the maximum field of view of the device. Such a maximumfield of view can be based on physical limitations of the scanner andcan be referred to as the “scan range” of the scanner, the “scan range”of the device, etc. The scanner, in some embodiments, includes areflective device, including a mirror, which can be adjusted, based atleast in part upon an action of an actuator device associated with thescanner, to different orientations to cause the light beam pulsesreceived from an emitter device to be reflected into differentdirections of travel, thereby directing the beam pulses into differentdirections within the field of view. As a result, the light beam pulsescan be directed to travel into different regions of the field of view,reflect off of different points on various surfaces in the field ofview, and return to the detector in the device. In some embodiments, thereflected beams received at the device are directed to the reflector byat least the scanner. Based on the pulses which are directed intodifferent regions of the field of view, and are reflected off of variousreflection points in those various regions, the device can detectreflection points, and positions thereof, in various different regionsof the field of view. In some embodiments, the light beam scanningdevice can monitor various properties of various detected reflectionpoints (e.g., depth, azimuth, elevation, intensity, some combinationthereof, etc.) and, based on similarities in one or more propertiesbetween various reflection points, correlate the various reflectionpoints to one another to generate a point “cloud” of reflection pointswhich represent a point cloud of an object located within the field ofview. The generated point cloud can be used to generate a 3D map of theobject, an image of the object, track the object in the field of view,etc.

In some cases, a light beam cross section, also referred to herein asthe “beam spot” changes with distance from the emitter of the beam. Forexample, a light beam cross-sectional area can grow with distancetraveled. Such growth can be due to a divergence of the beam. As usedherein, divergence of the light beam refers to an angular measure of theincrease of one or more dimensional properties of the beam crosssection, including one or more of beam radius, diameter, somecombination thereof, etc. in one or more cross sectional axes as thebeam travels away from one or more of a light beam emitter, opticalaperture, optical lens, some combination thereof, etc.

While the light beam can be a laser beam, the beam can exhibitdivergence along one or more axes of the beam cross section as the beamtravels away from the light beam emitter, which can include one or morelaser diodes. Where divergence is approximately equal in value acrossall cross-sectional axes, the beam cross section can grow larger withtravel distance of the light beam from the emitter, with correspondingdecrease in overall light beam intensity.

In addition, a light beam can have an asymmetric emission, such that thebeam has a fast axis and a slow axis, where the divergence of the fastaxis is greater than that of the slow axis. As a result, across-sectional area can change shape and size over distance travelled.For example, where an initially-emitted light beam has a circularcross-section, the light beam can become more elliptical in shape withdistance travelled from the emitter, as the divergence of the fast axisof the beam can be greater than that of the slow axis of the beam. Sucha deformed beam can result in inaccuracies in determining the positionof reflection points in a scene. Such inaccuracies can be exacerbatedwith distance between the scanning device and various objects in thefield of view, thereby complicating efforts to generate accurate imagingof a scene via light beam scanning of a field of view.

In some embodiments, a light beam has different divergence values acrossdifferent axes of the beam cross-section. For example, where the lightbeam has asymmetric emission, the beam can have a fast axis whichexhibits a certain value of divergence and a slow axis which exhibits adifferent value of divergence which is less than that of the divergenceof the fast axis. As a result, as a light beam travels further from thelight-beam scanning device, the shape of the beam cross section canchange, in addition to size. For example, where a light beam has a slowaxis and a fast axis, and where the fast axis has a greater divergencethan the slow axis, the beam cross section can change shape fromcircular to ellipsoid with increasing travel distance, as the diameterof the beam spot along the fast axis can become progressively largerwith respect to the diameter of the beam spot along the slow axis.

In some embodiments, a beam with a relatively large (“wide”) beamdivergence can exhibit a relatively large beam spot. Such awide-divergence beam spot, encompassing a relatively large region of thefield of view and also referred to herein as a large beam spot size, canbe more likely than beam spots of narrower-divergence beams, where beamspots of narrower-divergence beams can be smaller in spot size than thebeam spot of a wider-divergence beam at a common distance of beamtravel, to reflect off of a surface of one or more objects located inthe field of view. As a result, scanning a relatively wide-divergencebeam through a field of view can be relatively more likely to result indetection of one or more reflection points, and thus objects, in thefield of view. While wide-divergence beams can be more likely to resultin object detection in a field of view, the resolution of a point cloudof the object generated based on detected reflection points may be lessthan that of a point cloud generated based on detected reflection pointswhich result from scanning a narrower-divergence beam over the object.

In some embodiments, a beam with a relatively small (“narrow”) beamdivergence can exhibit a relatively small beam spot. Such anarrow-divergence beam spot, encompassing a relatively small region ofthe field of view, can be more likely than beam spots ofwider-divergence beams to reflect off of different detailed surfaces ofone or more objects located in the field of view. As a result, scanninga relatively narrow-divergence beam through a field of view can berelatively more likely to result in generating a point cloud of anobject which resolves various details and features of the object in thefield of view, relative to scanning a wider-divergence beam through thefield of view. While narrow-divergence beams can be more likely toresult in higher-resolution point clouds being generated for an objectin a field of view, the likelihood of detection of an object in thefield of view via a narrow-divergence beam, based at least in part upondetection of at least one reflection point on the object, may be lessthan the likelihood of detection of an object via a wider-divergencebeam scanning.

The apparatus can include a lens element assembly which can adjustdivergence of the light beam along one or more cross sectional axes ofthe beam.

The lens element assembly included in the light beam scanning device cancontrol divergence of the beam along one or more cross-sectional axes.As used herein, cross sectional axis is an axis which is perpendicularto the optical axis of the light beam. Divergence control can result inimproved accuracy of determining the position of reflection points inthe field of the view of the device, which can result in more accurateimages, 3D maps, etc. generated based on the reflection points. Forexample, where a light beam has variable divergence in different crosssectional axes, different beam pulses of the light beam can change todifferent cross sectional shapes based on the distance traveled to andfrom various surfaces in the field of view: pulses which reflect off ofnearby surfaces may remain approximately circular in cross section,while pulses which reflect off of distance surfaces may be highlyellipsoid. Controlling beam divergence can at least partially mitigatesuch non-uniformity of beam pulse cross sections, which can improve theaccuracy of the device in determining the properties of reflectionpoints detected at various positions within the field of view (e.g., atvarious distances from the device), which can improve the correlation ofvarious sets of reflection points into point clouds of various objects,etc. As a result, image mapping accuracy is enhanced, resulting inimages, 3D maps, etc. which have improved accuracy in mapping thevarious objects in the scene that is within the field of view.

In some embodiments, the lens element assembly can control beamdivergence, thus controlling beam spot size, along one or morecross-sectional axes to control the beam spot size of the beam, therebyadjusting the beam to optimize between object detection andhigh-resolution object point cloud generation. For example, the lenselement assembly can control the beam divergence to cause a beam scannedover a field of view to initially have a wide divergence and a resultinglarge beam spot size, thereby optimizing a scan of the beam to result indetecting objects in the field of view, and subsequently to have anarrow divergence, thereby optimizing a scan of the beam to result inresolving detailed point clouds of the detected objects in the field ofview. The field of view can be adjusted based on object detection via awide-divergence beam scan, such that a narrow-divergence beam is scannedover a limited region, of the initial field of view, in which an objectis initially detected via a wide-divergence beam scan.

Light Beam Scanning Device

FIG. 1 illustrates a light beam scanning device 100 which scans lightbeams over a field of view, according to some embodiments. Device 100can include a light detection and rangefinding (“LIDAR”) device. Device100 includes a light emitter 102 which emits a light beam 103. Theemitter 102 can emit the light beam as a sequence of beam pulses, alsoreferred to herein as a pulsed light beam.

The emitter 102 can be a laser light source, also referred to hereininterchangeably as a laser emitter, laser light emitter, etc. In someembodiments, the emitter 102 includes one or more laser diodes. In someembodiments, the light emitter 102 is a laser light source whichincludes a vertical cell external cavity laser (VCSEL) emitter. In someembodiments, a light beam emitted by a VCSEL emitter is independent ofasymmetrical emission, such that the emitted beam does not include afast axis, slow axis, etc. In some embodiments, the light emitter 102includes a fiber laser emitter which emits a light beam which is a laserbeam having a Gaussian beam profile, which results in the beam having across-sectional intensity distribution which approximates a Gaussianprofile. In some embodiments, the emitter 102 includes an edge-emittingsolid state laser emitter. An edge-emitting solid state laser emittercan emit a laser beam which exhibits asymmetric emission, such that thebeam exhibits an elliptical cross-sectional area which includes a fastaxis and a slow axis. Such a beam can, in some embodiments, be at leastpartially polarized. It will be understood that the light emitter asdescribed herein can encompass any known laser light source. As referredto herein, a cross-sectional area, distribution, etc. with regard to alight beam can be referred to interchangeably as a transverse area,transverse distribution, etc.

Device 100 includes a scanner 108 which directs the light beam 103 invarious directions over a field of view 112. Such directing the lightbeam 103, various pulses included therein, etc. over various regions ofa field of view can be referred to as “sweeping” the beam over the fieldof view, “scanning” the beam over the field of view, etc. The scanner108 can “scan” the beam over the field of view in one or more particularscan patterns, so that the beam, pulses therein, etc. are directedacross various regions of the field of view in a particular patternacross the field of view. The scanner 108 can include a reflectivedevice, including a mirror, which can be controllably adjusted tovarious orientations so that the light beam 103 is directed to travel invarious controlled directions within the field of view 112. The scanner108 can be controllably adjusted to various orientations, to direct thelight beam 103 to travel in a particular direction, based on an actuatordevice associated with the scanner 108. In some embodiments, the fieldof view 112 of the device 100 can be based at least in part upon therange of directions in which the scanner 108 can direct light beamsreceived from emitter 102.

Device 100 include an optical aperture 110 through which the light beamtravels, as directed beam 105, from the scanner 108 out into an externalenvironment 101. The field of view 112 of the device 100 can be based atleast in part upon the optical aperture 110.

In some embodiments, the directed light beam 105 travels, within aparticular region of the field of view 112 based at least in part uponthe orientation of the scanner 108, and reaches a surface of an object120 located within the field of view 112. The light beam 105 can reach aparticular point 122 on the object, thereby illuminating the point 122.At least a portion of the beam 105 which reaches the point 122 canreflect off of the point 122 as a reflected beam 107. The reflected beam107 can return to the device 100. As such, the point 122 can be referredto as a “reflection point”. In some embodiments, the reflection point122 has a size and shape which corresponds to the beam spot of the lightbeam 105 which reaches the object 120 and reflects off of point 122. Forexample, where light beam 105 is a wide-divergence beam with arelatively large beam spot size, the size of point 122 can be relativelylarger in area than if beam 105 were a narrow-divergence beam with arelatively small beam spot size.

The device includes a detector 114 which can detect the reflection point122 based on receiving the reflected beam 107. In the illustratedembodiment, the device 100 includes a beam splitter 106 and directs thereflected beam 107 to reach the detector via the scanner 108 and thebeam splitter 106. It will be understood that, in some embodiments, thebeam splitter 106 is absent and the reflected beam 107 reaches thedetector 114 via a pathway which is at least partially separate from thepathway followed by the beam 103, 105 via the scanner 108. For example,the detector 114 can be located proximate to a separate optical apertureand can directly detect reflected beams 107 which reach the separateoptical aperture. In some embodiments, the detector includes a singlesensing element which can detect a reflected beam 107. For example, thedetector 114 can be a single-pixel detector.

The detector 114 can detect the reflection point based at least in partupon detecting the reflected light beam 107 received at the detector114. The detector can determine a travel time of the beam between atleast the device 100 and the reflection point 122 and can thereforedetermine the position of the reflection point 122, relative to thedevice 100. For example, where the light beam 103, 105, 107 is anindividual beam pulse, the detector can determine a travel time of thebeam to reflection point 122 based on a time of emittance of the pulseat emitter 102 and a time of receiving the reflected beam pulse 107 atthe detector 114. The distance traveled by beam 103 within device 100(e.g., from emitter 102 to scanner) the distance traveled by beam 107within device 100 (e.g., from scanner 108 to detector 114 may bepredetermined, such that the travel time corresponding to such distancesof travel within device 100 can be discounted from the elapsed timebetween beam emittance at emitter 102 and reception at detector 114 todetermine the travel time of the light beam between the scanner 108,optical aperture 110, etc. and the reflection point 122.

Based on the travel time of the beam to the point 122, device 100 candetermine the distance (“depth”) of the reflection point within thefield of view 112. In addition, based on the orientation of the scanner108, the position of the reflection point in three dimensions within thefield of view 112 can be determined. For example, in the illustratedembodiment, the position of the reflection point 122 can be determinedas a particular depth 154, azimuth 152, and elevation (orthogonal toazimuth 152) relative to the position of the scanner 108, based on thetravel time of the beam to and from the reflection point 122 and theorientation of the scanner concurrently with the beam travelling to andfrom the point 122.

In some embodiments, the device 100 generates a point “cloud” of anobject 120 based on a correlation of the detected reflection points 122on one or more surfaces of the object. Where the scanner 108 adjusts todirect beam 103 pulses to reflect off of various points 122 on theobject 120 at various azimuths 154 relative to a center 151 of the fieldof view 112 and elevations (angular difference from 151 along an axisorthogonal to azimuth 152, i.e. in a direction out of the figure), suchthat the various reflection points 122 are detected by detector 114, thedevice 100 can correlate the various reflection points 122 on the objectto generate a point “cloud” of the object 120. The correlated points 122may be correlated based on similarities in properties, relative to otherpoints 122 in the field of view 112. For example, a set of points 122with similar depth 154, azimuth 152, and elevation properties may bedetermined to be points on one or more surfaces of a common object 120and can be correlated into a point cloud of the object, relative toother reflection points with different properties, including differentdepth, azimuth, and elevation properties. In another example, a set ofpoint 122 with similar intensity may be determined to be points on oneor more surfaces of a common object 120 and can be correlated into apoint cloud of the object, relative to other reflection points withdifferent intensities.

Device 100 includes a lens element assembly 104 which adjusts divergenceof the beam 103. As shown, the lens element assembly 104 can be locatedalong an optical pathway of the light beam 103 through the device,between the emitter 102 and the optical aperture 110. As shown, the lenselement assembly 104 can be located between the emitter 102 and thescanner 108, although it will be understood that the assembly 104 can belocated in other locations in the device, including between the scanner108 and the aperture 110, between the scanner and a beam splitter, etc.Multiple separate assemblies 104 can be located along the opticalpathway of one or more of the beam 103, 105, etc.

In some embodiments, the assembly 104 can adjust the divergence of thelight beam in one or more particular cross sectional axes of the lightbeam. Adjusting divergence of the light beam can result in adjusting thebeam spot size of the light beam. For example, the assembly 104 canadjust the divergence of a particular axis, including a fast axis of thelight beam 103, relative to a divergence of another particular axis,including a slow axis of the light beam 103. Such adjustment can resultin uniform divergence of the beam 103 “downstream” of the assembly 104,relative to the beam 103 “upstream” of the assembly. Uniform beamdivergence can result in a beam spot of the beam 103 which isapproximately uniform in radius, or circular in shape. Uniform beamdivergence can result in improved accuracy of reflection pointcorrelation into point clouds of objects, as the shape of the reflectedbeam 107 received at the detector 114 can exhibit increased uniformityin shape across various distances of the reflection point 122 in thefield of view 112. Such uniformity of the beam 107 cross section canenable the device 100 to more accurately determine properties of thereflection points 122 and distinguish whether to correlate certain setsof reflection points 122 into one or more point clouds.

In some embodiments, assembly 104 dynamically adjusts the divergence ofbeam 103, such that the scanned beam 105 has a particular crosssectional area, intensity, etc., Such dynamic adjustment can beimplemented based on the size of the field of view 112, the determineddepth of one or more detected reflection points 122 relative to thedevice 100, a predetermined scan protocol, etc. For example, whereemitter 102 and scanner 108 are controlled to implement multiplesuccessive scans of a field of view 112, where the scanner 108 “scans”the light beam 105 across one or more regions of the field of view 112in a scan pattern, assembly 104 can adjust the beam 105 divergencebetween consecutive scans of the field of view. As a result, one scancan involve scanning a wide-divergence beam over the field 112, wherethe cross sectional area of the beam is relatively increased at variousdepths from the device 100, relative to a reference divergence value,and a next scan can include scanning a narrow-divergence beam over thefield. Such consecutive scans can scan in a common pattern over thefield 112. Where the beam is a sequence of pulses, a scan can includedirecting the sequence of pulses in a pattern across the field 112. Thefirst scan of the beam, having a wider divergence, results in a patternof pulses which have a wider beam cross section and are more likely toreach a surface of an object 120 in the field, relative to a pattern ofbeam pulses having narrower divergence which might “miss” an object 120in the field 112. The second scan of the beam, having a narrowerdivergence, results in a pattern of pulses which have a narrower beamcross section and greater intensity and are thus more likely to reflectsufficiently intense light 107 off of a surface to be detected atdetector 114, thereby allowing detection of reflection points 122 onobjects with relatively low reflectivity.

In some embodiments, dynamic divergence adjustment includes adjustingbeam divergence, beam spot size, etc. during a given scan of a field ofview 112, such that beam divergence is at least partially changed, whilethe emitter 102 and scanner 108 are in the process of scanning a fieldof view 112 in one or more particular scan patterns. Such dynamicadjustment can be implemented in response to detection of one or morereflection points 122 in the field of view 112.

In some embodiments, device 100 adjusts the field of view through whichthe scanner 108 scans the light beam 105, based at least in part upondetection of one or more reflection points 122 in the field of view.Such adjustment can result in scanning particular regions of the fieldof view in which objects are determined to be located. For example, inthe illustrated embodiment, field of view 112 can represent a maximumfield of view through which scanner 1008 can scan the light beam 105.Such a maximum field of view can be referred to as the scan range of thedevice 100. The scanner 108 can scan the beam 105 through the field ofview 112 and, in response to detecting reflection point 122, the device100 can adjust the field of view through which the scanner 108 scans thebeam 105 from the maximum field of view 112 to another field of view 132which represents a limited region of the field of view 112. The field ofview 132 can be determined based on the detection of the reflectionpoint 122, so that the field of view encompasses a limited region offield 116 in which an object 120 which includes point 122 is located. Asa result of narrowing the field of view, scans of the beam 105 can focuson detecting reflection points from various locations on the object 120,which can enable device 100 to generate a higher-fidelity point cloud ofthe object 120. In some embodiments, the device 100 can adjust the rate(“scan rate”) at which the scanner 108 changes orientation to scan thelight beam 105 across the field of view based on the size of the fieldof view 132. The scan rate can include a rate of orientation change ofthe scanner 108, a value associated with the magnitude of the individualstep changes in scanner orientation between consecutive sets of beampulses, etc. For example, in order to scan the full field of view 112within a given period of time, scanner 108 may be required to executerelatively large steps in orientation change between directing differentsets of beam pulses to separate regions of the field 112. Where thescanner 108 is controlled to scan a smaller field of view 132, thescanner can execute smaller steps in orientation change betweendirecting different sets of beam pulses to separate regions of the field132. As a result, where the field of view 132 narrows, relative to ascan range of the device, the scan rate of the scanner 108 can bedecreased, so that the angle change between separate sets of beams 105in a given scan of the field 132 are correspondingly decreased, whichcan result in higher-resolution point clouds of an object 120 in thefield, as the point cloud can include more points 122.

In some embodiments, assembly 104 dynamically adjusts beam divergencebased on detection of one or more reflection points 122 in the field ofview 112, where the adjustment is based at least in part upon the sizeof the field of view 132, the depth of the reflection point 122 relativeto the device, some combination thereof, etc. Where an object 120 isdetermined to be relatively close to the device 100, where the field ofview 132 is narrowed relative to the maximum field 112, where the scanrate of the scanner is decreased, some combination thereof, etc., thedivergence of a beam can be decreased so that the beam cross sectionalarea at the object 120 is also decreased, resulting in smallerreflection points 122 on the object and increased detail of the objectin a generated point cloud. Where the object 120 is determined to berelatively distance from the device 100, where the field of view 132 iswidened relative to the maximum field 112, where the scan rate of thescanner is increase, some combination thereof, etc., the divergence canbe increased so that the regions of the field scanned by the beam 105are increased to reduce a probability that an object 120 in the field iscompletely missed by the beam 105. While the resolution of the object120 may be reduced via increased beam 105 divergence, the divergence canbe adjusted dynamically during a scan, between consecutive scans, etc.so that a field of view can be first scanned with a wide-divergence beamto first detect the presence of objects 120 in various particularregions of the field 112 (referred to herein as “coarse scanning”,“sensing”, etc.) and then scanning one or more limited regions of thefield 112 via a narrow-divergence beam at a lower scan rate, to generatea higher-resolution point cloud of the object which resolves variousdetails of the object. The divergence of the beam can be dynamicallyselected and adjusted thereto based on one or more of the field of view132, determined depth of a detected reflection point 122 in the field132, a determined scan rate of the scanner 108, some combinationthereof, etc.

Device 100 includes a controller 150, which can also be referred toherein as a “controller device”. In some embodiments, controller 150controls one or more of the above elements of device 100 to implementimage mapping of a field of view 112. For example, controller 150 cancontrol the emitting of a pulsed light beam by emitter 102, controlscanner 108 to control scanning of one or more fields of view includedwithin the scan range 112, control assembly 104 to control beamdivergence, etc. Controller can control one or more elements of device100, including assembly 104, scanner 108, etc. based on output datagenerated by detector 114, input data received from a user of device 100via one or more user interfaces of device 100, etc. In some embodiments,the controller 150 controls one or more of the elements of device 100,including adjusting a position of one or more portions of lens elementassembly 104, via an open loop control process. For example, thecontroller can access a stored relationship between a particular beamdivergence, beam spot size, etc. and a particular position of one ormore portions of the lens element assembly and, based at least in partupon determining a target beam spot size, beam divergence, somecombination thereof, etc., the controller can adjust one or moreportions of the lens element assembly 104 to a particular position whichis determined to be associated with the target beam spot size. In someembodiments, the controller 150 controls one or more of the elements ofdevice 100, including adjusting a position of one or more portions oflens element assembly 104, via a closed loop control process. Forexample, the controller can, based at least in part upon determining atarget beam spot size, determine an initial adjustment to a portion ofthe lens element assembly, to a particular position, which is determinedto adjust the beam spot size to match the target beam spot size adjust aportion of the lens element assembly 104 to a particular position,implement the initial adjustment of the lens element assembly portion,subsequently determine the beam spot size of the beam as feedback,determine a new adjustment to the lens element assembly which isdetermined to adjust the beam spot size to match the target beam spotsize based on the beam spot size feedback, etc.

FIG. 2A-B illustrate an emitter which emits a light beam and a lenselement assembly which adjusts the divergence of the beam along one ormore cross sectional axes of the beam, according to some embodiments.The illustrated emitter and lens element assembly can be included in anyof the above embodiments.

In some embodiments, a lens element assembly includes multiple lenselements which can be adjusted, individually, collectively, somecombination thereof, etc. to adjust the divergence of the light beam.The lens element assembly can include one or more actuator mechanisms,also referred to herein as “actuators”, which adjust one or more of thelens elements. In the illustrated embodiment, light emitter 202 emits alight beam 201, which can include a laser beam, along an optical axis226, and lens element assembly 204 includes a first lens element 206, asecond lens element 208, and an actuator 207, where at least one of theelements 206, 208 can be adjustably positioned (“adjusted”) by actuator207 to adjust the divergence of the beam 201 along one or more crosssectional axes 222, 224 of the beam 201. At least one of the lenselements can at least partially collimate the beam 201. For example,lens element 206 can at least partially collimate the beam 201. In someembodiments, one or more portions of the lens element assembly includesan actuated optical element which can condition a light beam, such thatthe spot size of the light beam, reflection spot size, etc. isadjustably controlled. In one example, the actuated optical elementincludes an actuated beam expander lens assembly which can adjustablycontrol the diameter of the light beam spot size.

Actuator 207 can include one or more various actuators. For example,actuator 207 can include one or more magnetic actuators, voice coilmotors, bi-stable actuators, etc. In some embodiments, actuator 207 canre-position a lens element between two or more discrete positions. Forexample, actuator 207 can include a bi-stable actuator which canadjustably position a lens element at one of two discrete positions. Insome embodiments, actuator 207 can continuously re-position a lenselement along a range of continuous positions. For example, actuator 207can include a voice coil motor actuator which can adjustably position alens element along a range of continuous positions. It will beunderstood that the actuator 207 can encompass any known actuatormechanism.

As shown in the illustrated embodiment, lens elements 206, 208 spantransverse to optical axis 226. One or more of elements 206, 208 can beadjusted along the optical axis 226 to adjust beam divergence in one ormore of the cross sectional axes 222, 224. As shown in FIG. 2A, lenselement 208 is positioned at a particular distance 212A from lenselement 206, which can be fixed in a particular position relative toemitter 202. Where lens element 208 is positioned at distance 212A fromlens element 206, the beam 201 passing downstream from assembly 204 canexhibit a divergence 240A in a cross sectional axis 222 whichcorresponds to the fast axis of the beam 201. As shown, the crosssection 250A of the beam 201, also referred to herein interchangeably asthe beam spot 250A, at a distance 214A downstream of the lens element208 has become ellipsoid rather than circular 252A, due to thedivergence of the fast axis 222 and the slow axis 224, where slow axisis orthogonal to both axis 226 and axis 222. As illustrated, the crosssection 222, or “beam spot” 222 extends along axes 222, 224 which areboth orthogonal to each other and to optical axis 226 along which thebeam 201 travels.

As shown in FIG. 2B, lens element 208 is adjusted to a new positionwhich is at a particular distance 212B from lens element 206, wheredistance 212B is greater than that of distance 212A. As a result, asalso shown, the divergence 240B of the beam 201 is increased along atleast the fast axis 222, resulting in a beam cross section 252B, atdistance 214B from lens element 208, which has a greater area than thatof the cross section 252A. Note that distances 214A and 214B are locatedthe same distance from a fixed element, including emitter 202, lenselement 206, and assembly 204 as a whole, although distances 214A and214B may not be equal, due to the adjusted position of the lens element208.

In the illustrated embodiment, lens element 208 is adjustable to adjustthe divergence 240A-B of the beam 201 along some or all cross sectionalaxes of the beam 201, so that the cross sectional area of the beam 201is adjusted across a range of depths from the assembly 204, although thebeam cross section increasingly diverges from circular to ellipsoid withincreasing distance downstream from the assembly 204. Such adjustment ofelement 208 can be implemented by actuator 207. Such adjustment can bedynamic. Such adjustment can include translating one or more lenselements. In some embodiments, one or more of the lens elements in theassembly 204 is adjustable to adjust divergence in one or moreparticular cross sectional axes, relative to divergence in one or moreother particular cross sectional axes, so that the shape of the beam 201can be controlled across a range of distances downstream from theassembly 204. For example, in some embodiments, lens element 208 isadjustable in distance from lens element 206 to adjust a divergence ofthe fast axis 222, relative to to divergence of the slow axis 224, suchthat the cross section of the beam 201 maintains a generally circularshape 252A across a range of distances from the assembly, where notdoing so could result in ellipsoid cross sections 250A across the samerange. As shown in FIG. 2B, the element 208 can be translated, relativeto element 206, to control both size and shape of the beam cross section250B, also referred to herein interchangeably as the beam spot 250B, sothat the cross section is increased, at a given distance, relative tocross section 250A and maintains a generally uniform beam shape.

In some embodiments, the assembly 204 includes multiple lens elements,where separate lens elements can be adjusted, by one or more actuatorsincluded in assembly 204, to adjust divergence along separate crosssectional axes of the beam. For example, an assembly can include a firstlens element which is adjustable to adjust the beam divergence along thefast axis of the beam and a second lens element which is adjustable toadjust the beam divergence along the slow axis of the beam.

FIG. 3A-B illustrate adjusting beam divergence of a sequence of lightbeam pulses scanned by a light beam scanning device over a field of viewin a scan pattern, according to some embodiments. The light beamscanning device 300 can be included in any of the above embodiments.

In some embodiments, to generate an image map of a scene, a light beamscanning device scans a light beam over a field of view in which thescene is included, where the image map is generated based on generatedpoint clouds of various objects in the scene, where the point clouds aregenerated based on detecting reflection points in the field of view andcorrelating various sets of reflection points to generate point cloudsof the various objects based on similar properties of the various setsof reflection points. Where the light beam includes a sequence of beampulses, the scanning can include controlling a scanner of the device todirect various pulses towards various regions of the field of view in ascan pattern of pulses through the field of view. The scan pattern caninclude a pattern of pulses which are angularly spaced apart, within thefield of view, based at least in part upon one or more of a particularscan rate of the scanner, a particular pulse rate of the emitter, etc.The pulses can have one or more various divergences which can be atleast partially adjusted by a lens element assembly included in thelight beam scanning device.

In some embodiments, one or more of the beam pulse divergence, scanrate, and field of view can be adjusted. Such adjustment can be dynamic,such that it occurs during a given scan of a field of view, is based atleast in part upon the scan rate and field of view, is based at least inpart upon output generated by a detector included in the light beamscanning device, some combination thereof, etc. A given “scan” of afield of view can include executing an individual particular “sweep” ofthe light beam pulses over the field of view according to a particularscan pattern, such that consecutive “sweeps” of the pulsed light beamover the field of view according to one or more scan patterns compriseconsecutive individual scans of the field of view.

In some embodiments, beam divergence is adjusted, based at least in partupon the field of view, scan rate, etc. to adjust the likelihood ofdetecting objects in the field of view, adjust the resolution of theobjects in the point clouds of the objects, etc. Such adjustment can beimplemented by one or more lens element assemblies included in thedevice. Such adjustment can occur over one or more scans of the field ofview, where one or more of field of view, scan rate, and beam divergencecan be dynamically adjusted to control resolution of generated pointclouds of objects detected in a field of view based on detectedreflection points.

As shown in FIG. 3A, device 300 initiates a scan of a field of view 301by “sweeping” a pulsed light beam over a portion of the field 301 in aparticular pattern 306 of individual pulses 302A of the light beam. Theillustrated pulses 302A in FIG. 3A illustrate the beam spots, andrelative beam spot size, of the light beam scanning the field of view301 from a perspective of one or more portions of the device 300. Thepattern 306A is at least partially based on the scan rate of the scannerin the device 300, which can adjust the direction of each pulse 302Awithin the field 301 and the angular spacing 304A between consecutivepulses 302A. As shown, the pulsed beam scanned through the field 301 inFIG. 3A has a relatively narrow beam divergence, such that the beam spotof each pulse 302A is relatively small in beam spot size. While smallbeam spot size of the scanned beam can result in relatively smallerreflection points, which can enable resolution of finer details of anobject that larger beam cross sections may be hindered in resolving, thesmaller cross sectional area of pulses 302A and the spacing 304A betweenthe pulses 302A can result in at least some of the detail in a field ofview being missed by the scan. For example, as shown, two objects 308,309 are located within the field of view 301, but none of the beampulses 302A reflect off of either of the objects 308, 309 when the scan306A is executed as shown, based at least in part upon the small area ofeach pulse 302A and the spacing between the pulses 304A.

Adjusting the scan rate of the device 300, so that the spacing 304Abetween consecutive pulses 302A can increase the likelihood ofreflecting a pulse off of an object in the field 301. In someembodiments, reducing the spacing 304A between pulses 302A requires thatadditional pulses be scanned over the field 301 to scan the field.Scanning such additional pulses results in a given scan requiring agreater time period to execute. In some embodiments, the time period inwhich an individual scan can be executed is limited to a maximum timeperiod. As a result, in order to scan the field 301 with pulses 302Ahaving a relatively small beam spot, device 300 may be required to space304A the pulses 302A apart in the scan of the field 301, such that thereare gap spaces between the spaced pulses 302A in which an object may bemissed by the pulses 302A, thereby preventing detection of the object bydevice 300.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the beam divergence can be adjusted to increase thebeam spot size of the beam pulses 302B such that likelihood of detectionof the presence of objects 308, 309 in the field of view 301 can beincreased when the beam is scanned over the field 301 at the adjusteddivergence in scan pattern 306B, relative to the pattern 306A in FIG.3A. In FIG. 3B, while the spacing 304B between the individual pulses302B may be similar to that of the spacing 304A in pattern 306A, thegreater divergence of the beam results in the pulses 302B individuallyand collectively covering a greater portion of the field of view 301 ina given scan, relative to the pulses of the scan in FIG. 3A. In fact, asshown, many pulses 302B may overlap across common regions of the fieldof view. As a result, the probability that an object in the field 301will be completely missed by the scan pattern 306B is reduced, relativeto a similar scan pattern 306A with similar scan rate and narrowerdivergence of the beam. The illustrated pulses 302B in FIG. 3Billustrate the beam spots, and relative beam spot size, of the lightbeam scanning the field of view 301 from a perspective of one or moreportions of the device 300.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the scan pattern 306B results in at least tworeflection points being detected for each of objects 308, 309. While thedetection points detected based on the scan in FIG. 3B may not result ina high-resolution point cloud which resolves the full detail of theobjects 308, 309, based at least in part upon the relatively large sizeof the beam spot of the scanned beam resulting in relatively largereflection points which can at least partially obscure various detailsof the objects, the presence of the objects in the field 301 can bedetected based on the detected reflection points on each of the objects.Subsequently, the field of view 301 can be narrowed to encompass alimited region of field 301 which also encompasses one or more ofobjects 308, 309 and a subsequent scan can be executed, with a lowerscan rate and narrower beam divergence, and thus smaller resulting beamspot size, such that a higher resolution point cloud can be generatedfor one or more of the objects which provides better resolution of theobject details relative to scan 306B. Such adjustment of scan rate,field of view, beam divergence, beam spot size, etc. can be implementedduring a given “scan” of the field of view according to one or morepatterns.

In some embodiments, scans 306A, 306B are executed by device 300 overfield 301 consecutively as scans having alternative beam divergence, sothat a wide-divergence scan 306B over a particular region of the field301 is followed by narrow-divergence scan 306A. Such an alternation ofdivergence, and thus beam spot size, between separate scans can enabledetection of the presence of objects in the field 301 via bothwide-divergence scans which are more likely to reach an object based atleast in part upon the relatively larger beam spot size of the scannedbeam and narrow-divergence scans which are more likely to result indetection of a reflection point from a low-reflectivity surface based atleast in part upon the relatively smaller and thus higher intensity beamspot size of the scanned beam.

A light beam scanning device 300 can be limited by the amount of timeavailable in which to execute a scan of a field of view 301; as aresult, while scanning a field 301 with pulses having the minimumpossible divergence and minimum possible angular difference betweenpulses may result in maximum resolution, scan times may restrict theability of device 300 to execute such a scan over an entire selectedfield 301 of view at such resolution may be complicated. As a result,adjusting the beam divergence can enable initial detection of variousobjects in a wider field of view at low resolution and dynamicadjustment of one or more of the beam divergence, scan rate, field ofview, etc. to generate higher-resolution mapping of the various objectsinitially detected within the wider field of view. In some embodiments,such adjustment of beam divergence can result in optimizing processingresources, as the number of scans and processing capacity required togenerate high-resolution image maps of various objects in a scene can bereduced as the objects can be quickly identified in a wide-divergencescan and then the objects can be mapped via a narrow-divergence scan ofthe limited regions of the field of view in which the objects arelocated.

In some embodiments, device 300 scans a pulsed light beam over a givenportion of a field of view based on input data received from one or moreother elements of the device. For example, the device 300 can include acamera device which can generate one or more images of the sceneincluded in field 301, including an image of objects 308, 309. In someembodiments, device 300 includes one or more computer systems which canprocess the images captured by the camera device to identify objects308, 309 in the image and, based on such identification, device 300 canscan limited regions of field 301 in which objects 308, 309 are locatedto generate point clouds of the object 308, 309. Such point clouds canbe used at device 300 to generate an image of the objects 308, 309,modify the image captured by the camera device, etc. In someembodiments, the device 300 includes a user interface and can scan alight beam over a region of a field of view based on user interactionwith an image presented to the user via the user interface. For example,upon executing the scan pattern 306B illustrated in FIG. 3B, device 300can correlate the detected reflection points into low-resolution pointclouds of objects 308, 309 and display an image of such objects on theuser interface of device 300 based on the point clouds. The device canscan a limited region of the field 301 based on a user interaction withthe displayed image, including a user command to scan a particularregion of the field, a user interaction with a portion of the image inwhich the image maps of one or more of the objects 308, 309 aredisplayed, etc. User commands can be received at the device 300 viatactile interaction with a display (e.g., a touchscreen display), audiointeraction (e.g., spoke commands), optical interaction (e.g., handgestures captured by a camera device included in device 300), etc.

FIG. 4 illustrates dynamically adjusting beam divergence, and thus beamspot size, to generate high-resolution image maps of various objectswithin the field of view of a light beam scanning device, according tosome embodiments. Such dynamic adjusting shown in FIG. 4 can beimplemented via any of the above embodiments of a light beam scanningdevice and can be managed by one or more computer systems associatedwith the light beaming device.

The dynamic adjustment process 400 illustrated in FIG. 4 includesimplanting one or more initial scans of a field of view 401. The fieldof view 401 can include the maximum available field of view, or “scanrange,” of the light beam scanning device executing the scan.

In some embodiments, the field of view can be scanned via one or morevarious individual scans of a light beam over the field where theindividual scans are of the light beam at difference divergences. Suchvarying beam divergences can be executed via a lens element assemblyincluded in the light beam scanning device. The various scans executedat various beam divergences can facilitate detection of objects withinthe field of view via optimizing various different beam properties. Forexample, a scan of a wide-divergence beam over the field of view canincrease the probability that the beam will reflect off of a surface ofan object in the field, thereby resulting in detection of the object viadetecting the reflection point, based on an increased beam crosssectional area (“beam spot”) due to increased beam divergence. Inanother example, a scan of a narrow-divergence beam of the field of viewcan increase the probability that the beam will reflect off oflow-reflectivity surfaces, from which the wide-divergence beam may notreflect off of with sufficient intensity to be detected at a detector ofthe light beam scanning device, as the intensity of the reflection pointcan be increased due to the smaller beam cross sectional area.

As shown at 410, a wide-divergence scan 406A of the field 401 caninclude scanning a sequence of beam pulses 404A over a portion of thefield in a particular scan pattern. As shown, the wide-divergence scan406A can result in at least some of the beam pulses at least partiallyoverlapping with one or more objects 403, 405 located in the scene thatis within the field of view 401.

As shown at 420, a narrow-divergence scan 406B of the field 401 caninclude scanning a sequence of beam pulses 404B over a portion of thefield in a particular scan pattern. The wide-divergence scan 406Apattern and the narrow-divergence scan 406B pattern can be similar, suchthat both scans 406A-B pass over the same portions of the field of view401, thereby enabling detection of low-reflectivity surfaces, via scan406B, which may not be detected via scan 406A. In some embodiments, oneor more of the scans 406A-B shown in 410, 420 are omitted from theprocess 400. For example, scan pattern 406B can be omitted, such that asingle wide-divergence scan shown in 410 is executed over the field 401.

As shown at 430, the presence of objects 403, 405 in the field of view401 is determined based on detecting reflection points which result fromat least a portion of one or more beam pulses, scanned over the field inone or more of scans 406A-B, reflecting off of the objects and beingreceived at a detector associated with the light beam scanning deviceexecuting the scans. As shown, reflection points 433 are detected whichindicate the presence of object 403 within field 401, and reflectionpoints 435 are detected which indicate the presence of object 405 withinfield 401. Both reflection points 433 and 435 result from thewide-divergence scan 406A shown in 410. As shown at 420, thenarrow-divergence scan 406B may result in at least partially failing todetect the presence of one or more objects within the field, due to therelatively smaller beam cross sectional area and angular spacing betweenseparate beam pulses 404B. As a result, while the scan 406A at 410results in detection of the presence of objects 403, 405 in the field401, the detailed shape, structure, etc. of the objects 403, 405 may notbe fully resolved from the reflection points 433, 435. For example, apoint cloud of object 403, generated from correlation of reflectionpoints 433, may not resolve the structure of object 403 as afive-pointed star.

As further shown at 430, based at least in part upon detecting thereflection points 433, 435, new fields of view associated with saidreflection points are established as fields 432, 434. Each separatefield 432, 434 can be sized based on properties of the reflection points433, 435, which can be correlated together to establish a “coarse” pointcloud of each object 403, 405. The fields 432, 434 can be sized based onan estimated size of the object within the field 401, which can bedetermined based on determining which beam pulses 404A reflected off ofobjects 403, 405, resulting in reflection points 433, 435, and whichpulses did not reflect off of any nearby points, as shown in 430. As aresult, the field 432, 434 can be sized to correspond to an estimationof the size of the objects within the field 401. In some embodiments,where an image of the field 401 is captured via another device,including a camera device, the size and shape of the objects within 401may be determined from the captured image, such that the fields 432, 434can be determined based on the determined size and location of theobjects within the field 401 based on the captured image. As furthershown, the fields 432, 434 can include limited regions of the field 401.

At 440, the light beam device executes scans of the fields 432, 434 withnarrow-divergence beam pulses. The scans can include scans of the fields432, 434 to the exclusion of the remainder of the field 401 beyondfields 432, 434. As shown, the scans 443, 445 can include a scan patternof the respective fields 432, 434 which is adjusted to correspond to thesize of the respective fields 432, 434. In addition, as shown, theangular spacing (“scan rate”) between separate beam pulses 444, 446 inthe scans, including the divergence of the beam pulses themselves can beadjusted to cause the scans 443, 445 to scan the respective regions 432,434 with narrow-divergence beam pulses at a reduced scan rate. As aresult of the narrow beam divergence, which can result in smaller crosssectional beam area, and the low scan rate, which can result in anincrease in the number of beam pulses in a given area, the number andconcentration of reflection points on the objects 403, 405 within thefields 432, 434 can be increased, relative to the scans at 410, 420. Asa result, point clouds of the objects generated via correlation ofreflection points detected as a result of scans 443, 445 can have anincreased level of resolution of the detail of the objects 403, 405,relative to that of point clouds of said objects resulting from thedetected reflections points 433, 435 resulting from scan 406A.

At 450, reflection points 453, 455 resulting from the scans 443, 445 aredetected. As shown, the detailed shapes and structures of the objects403, 405 are more highly resolved by reflection points 453, 455,relative to the reflection points 433, 435 resulting from the scan 406A.The points 453 can be correlated to generate a point cloud of the object403, and the points 455 can be correlated to generate a point cloud ofthe object 405, which can be used as part of generating one or more ofan image of the scene within field 401, a 3D map of the scene, trackingthe position of one or more of the objects 403, 405 through the scene,etc. For example, object 403 may be identified as a particular object(“five-pointed star”) based on the correlation of the point objects 453,and the position of the object 403 may be tracked based on suchidentification. Such tracking can be tracked as part of image focusbased on the position of object 403, processing the motion of object 403within the field 401 to determine whether an input command is received,etc. In some embodiments, such tracking is based at least in part upon auser interaction with the light beam scanning device executing process400, including a command which specifies a particular object andcommands tracking of the object (e.g., “track the star”).

FIG. 5 illustrates a controller device which can be included in a lightbeam scanning device, according to some embodiments. The controllerdevice can be included in any of the above embodiments of a light beamscanning device and can be implemented, at least in part, by one or morecomputer systems, as discussed below. Controller device 500 includesmultiple various modules, described herein, which can be implemented byone or more instances of computer systems.

Device 500 includes an emitter control module 502 which controlsemission of a light beam by an emitter device included in the light beamscanning device. Such control can include selecting generating anemission control signal which is transmitted to one or more of theemitter device, a power source electrically coupled to the emitterdevice, etc. which causes the emitter device to emit the light beam. Theemission control module can, in some embodiments, selectively control asequence in which the emitter device emits a sequence of beam pulses.Such control can include controlling the pulse rate 501. In someembodiments, module 502 can record the time 503 at which individualpulses are emitted by the emitter device.

Device 500 includes a scanner control module 504 which controls ascanner device included in the light beam scanning device, such that themodule 504 controls scanning of a light beam, emitted by the emitterdevice, over one or more regions of the scan range of the scannerdevice. Scan control module 504 can include a scan rate module 506 whichdetermines the scan rate associated with the scanner device during oneor more various scans through the scan range, a beam direction module508 which determines a direction of the light beam as directed by thescanner device at one or more points in time, and a field of view module510 which determines a field of view of the scanner, which determinesthe region of the scan range over which the scanner device is controlledto “scan” the light beam. Module 510, in some embodiments, determines apattern in which the scanner device is controlled to sweep the lightbeam during a given period of time. As shown in FIG. 3-4, such a patterncan include a sinusoidal pattern. Module 508, in some embodiments,determines a separate adjustment of the scanner device correspondingwith each separate beam direction through the field of view, such thatthe module 508 determines the adjustment to the scanner device, by oneor more actuator mechanisms associated with the scanner, needed todirect the light beam in a given direction. Where the scanner deviceincludes a mirror which can be adjusted in orientation, suchdetermination can include determining an orientation of the mirrordevice which corresponds with the mirror device directing the light beamin a particular direction according to a determined scan pattern. Module506, in some embodiments, determines a particular rate at which thescanner device changes the direction in which the light beam isdirected, an angular spacing between separate directions of separatelight beam pulses, etc. For example, where the emitted light beam is asequence of pulses, module 506 determines an orientation change ratewhich corresponds with the pulse rate and a determined angular spacingbetween separate desired directions of separate sets of beam pulsesaccording to the determined scan pattern. In some embodiments, module504 controls one or more elements of scanning a light beam over a fieldof view by the scanner, including controlling the adjustments to thescanner by one or more actuators during a scan, at one or moredetermined scan rates, to scan the light beam over a determined field ofview in one or more various scan patterns.

Device 500 includes a lens element control module 512 which, in someembodiments, controls a lens element assembly included in the light beamscanning device to control beam divergence of the light beam along oneor more cross sectional axes of the beam. Such control can includeadjusting one or more lens elements included in the lens elementassembly, based at least in part upon generating one or more lenselement adjustment command signals which can be transmitted to one ormore actuators associated with the one or more lens elements to causethe actuators to adjustably position the one or more lens elements.Module 512 can include a beam divergence module 514 which can determinea particular divergence, along one or more cross sectional axes, of thelight beam and a lens element positioning module 516 which can determinea magnitude of adjustment of the position of one or more lens elementswithin the lens element assembly. Beam divergence can be determinedseparately for separate cross sectional axes of the light beam. Forexample, a first divergence can be determined for a first axis of thebeam and a second divergence can be determined for another separate axisof the beam, which can be orthogonal to the first axis. Module 516 candetermine adjustments to the position of one or more lens elements,based on the determined beam divergences. In some embodiments, module516 can determine separate and independent adjustments to separate lenselements in the lens element assembly to independently adjust beamdivergence along separate cross sectional axes of the beam. For example,where module 514 determines a common divergence for all cross sectionalaxes of the beam, module 516 can determine a first adjustment to a firstlens element in the lens element assembly, by a first actuator, whichadjusts the beam divergence of one cross sectional axis to the commondivergence and can determine a second adjustment to a separate lenselement in the lens element assembly, by a second actuator, whichadjusts the beam divergence of another separate cross sectional axis tothe common divergence. In some embodiments, module 514 determines adivergence of one or more axes of the beam based on one or more variousinputs, including a desired cross sectional area of the beam at acertain depth from the scanner, a desired cross sectional shape of thebeam, a determined field of view of the scanner, a determined scan rateof the scanner, some combination thereof, etc. Module 512, in someembodiments, controls one or more actuators in the lens element assemblybased on the lens element positions determined at module 516. In someembodiments, module 512 adjusts beam divergence of the light beam, suchthat module 512 controls the beam spot size of the light beam, based atleast in part upon controlling the beam spot size to match a selectedbeam spot size, where the selected beam spot size is selected from a setof predetermined beam spot sizes. In some embodiments, module 512controls the beam spot size of the light beam based at least in partupon one or more received beam spot size commands which specify aparticular beam spot size. A received beam spot size command can includeone or more of a user command generated as a result of an end-userinteraction with a light beam scanning device in which controller device500 is included, a computer command generated by one or more computersystems based on one or more program instructions stored in one or morememory devices of the one or more computer systems, some combinationthereof, etc.

Device 500 includes a detector control module 518 which receives andprocesses data received from a detector included in the light beamscanning device. The detector can detect a light beam reflected off of asurface within the field of view in which the light beam is directed bythe scanner device. The detector device can include one or more sensorelements which detect the reflected light beam. Module 518 can include apoint detection module 520 which receives an indication that a reflectedlight beam is detected at one or more sensor elements of the detector.Based on the detection, module 520 can determine the presence of areflection point within the field of view in which the emitted lightbeam is directed. In some embodiments, module 520 can determine, basedon data received from the detector in association with the indication ofdetection of a reflected light beam, a time at which the reflected lightbeam is detected at the detector. Module 518 can include a flight timemodule 522 which can determine the time of flight of a light beam to andfrom the reflection point within the field of view. The flight time canbe determined based at least in part upon the time (also referred to as“timestamp”) at which a reflected light beam pulse was detected at thedetector, a time (also referred to as “timestamp”) at which a light beampulse was emitted from the emitter device, a pulse rate of the emitterdevice, some combination hereof, or the like.

In some embodiments, module 522 can determine at least a depth of thedetected reflection point within the field of view based at least inpart upon the time of flight of the light beam to and from thereflection point (i.e., between one or more portions of the light beamscanning device, including the scanner, and the reflection point) and anestimated speed of light within the medium in the field of view. Forexample, based at least in part upon the determined time of flight of alight beam pulse to and from the reflection point, and an estimate ofthe speed of light in the medium through which the light beam pulsetravels, the distance traveled by the light beam pulse to the reflectionpoint from one or more portions of the device, including the scanner,can be estimated.

Module 518 can include an output generator module 523 which generates anoutput based on the detection of a reflected light beam at the detectordevice. Detection of a reflected light beam can comprise detection of areflection point within the field of view of the light beam scanningdevice. The output can include one or more of an indication of areflection point within the field of view, a determined flight time of alight beam to and from the reflection point, an intensity of the lightreflected from the reflection point, a determined depth of thereflection point within the field of view, etc. In some embodiments,module 518 can determine a position of the detected reflection pointwithin the field of view, relative to one or more elements, portions,etc. of the light beam scanning device, based at least in part upon adetermined depth of the reflection point within the field of view and adetermined adjusted position of the scanner concurrently with at least aportion of the time period during which the light beam is travelling toand from the reflection point. An indication of the position of thereflection point, which can include a depth, azimuth, and elevation ofthe reflection point within the field of view, and intensity of thereflection point, some combination thereof, etc. can be included in thegenerated output as part of a set of properties associated with thereflection point.

Device 500 includes a processing module 524 which receives and processesdata from various one of modules 502, 504, 512, 518 and generates imagemaps of one or more objects, scenes, etc. within a field of view of thelight beam scanning device based at least in part upon the data. Module524 includes a point cloud generator module 534 which can receive andprocess one or more sets of data associated with various reflectionpoints detected at a detector device of the image beam scanning device.Each set of data, which can be generated at module 534 based on outputreceived from one or more of modules 502, 504, 518, can include dataindicating a depth, azimuth, elevation, intensity, some combinationthereof, etc. of a detected reflection point within the field of view,relative to one or more portions of the image beam scanning device,including the scanner device. In some embodiments, a given set of dataincludes information identifying the set as being associated with aparticular scan of the field of view.

In some embodiments, module 534 correlates one or more sets of pointdata into a set of reflection points which comprise a “point cloud” ofan object located within the field of view. Such correlation can includecomparing various property data of the various sets of data associatedwith the various separate detected reflection points and correlating twoor more points into a point cloud based at least in part upondetermining a similarity between one or more properties of the two ormore points. For example, two points determined to have one or more ofdepth, azimuth, and elevation which are similar within a predeterminedmargin (e.g., difference in depth is less than 1 mm, difference inazimuth is less than 0.01 degrees, etc.) may be correlated into a commonpoint cloud. Module 524 can include an image map generator module 536which can implement the correlation of various sets of data associatedwith separate detected reflection points to generate point clouds ofvarious objects. Module 536 can, based on the various generated pointclouds of objects located within a field of view, generate one or moreimage maps of a scene, within the field of view, which includes the oneor more objects. Such a generated image map can include an image of oneor more of the objects included in the scene, where the image can betwo-dimensional. The image map can include a 3D map of one or moreobjects within the scene and can include a 3D map of some or all of theentire scene. For example, module 536, in some embodiments, analyzesgenerated point clouds and identifies a point cloud of an object asbeing associated with a particular known object (e.g., a fork, a humanhand, a human hand making a particular gesture, etc.) and, based on theidentification, generates an image map of the particular object. Module524 includes a scan control module 534 which can control one or more ofthe emitter, scanner, lens element assembly, detector, etc. of the lightbeam scanning device, via controlling some or all of modules 502, 504,512, 518. Module 534 can control the various modules to cause the lightbeam scanning device to execute particular scans. For example, based ongenerating a point cloud, at module 534, of an object in a field of viewbased on correlating reflection points detected as a result of awide-divergence scan of the field of view, module 534 can determine thatthe resolution of the point cloud does not meet a threshold minimum andcan subsequently control modules 502, 504, 512 to execute one or moreadditional scans which result in higher-resolution point clouds of theobject. Such control can include controlling module 504 to narrow thefield of view around the detected object and scan at a lower ratethrough the narrowed field, controlling module 512 to narrow thedivergence of the beam scanned through the narrowed field, somecombination thereof, etc. Module 524 includes a tracking control module538 which, in some embodiments, responds to identification of aparticular object within the field of view by generating commands to oneor more of modules 502, 504, 516 to control the light beam scanningdevice to scan the regions of the field of view in which the identifiedobjects are located, such that the objects are tracked within the fieldof view over time.

In some embodiments, module 524 controls one or more of modules 502,504, 512 based at least in part upon output data received from one ormore of the modules included in module 500, including, withoutlimitation, output generated at module 518. For example, where module534 determines, based on output data generated by module 518 as a resultof a scan of a maximum field of view of the light beam scanning device,that one or more reflection points are detected within a particularregion of the field of view, the module 534 can command modules 502,504, and 512 to narrow the field of view around the detected reflectionpoints, narrow the beam divergence such that higher-resolution scans ofthe narrowed field of view are implemented, and scan the narrow field ofview according to an adjusted scan rate and the adjusted beamdivergence. As a result, module 534 can respond to initial,low-resolution detection of one or more objects within a field of viewby commanding the modules 502, 504, 512 to control various elements ofthe light beam scanning device such that a higher resolution scan of theone or more objects is implemented.

Device 500 includes an interface control module 540. Module 540 canenable user interaction with one or more modules of device 500. Module540 includes a display control module 542 which can manage displays ofone or more image maps, generated at module 536, on one or more displayuser interfaces associated with the light beam scanning device. In someembodiments, module 542 generates interactive displays, where a user caninteract with one or more portions of a displayed image map, via a userinterface, to provide input commands to device 500. Module 540 includesa user command input module 544 which can register the receipt of one ormore particular user commands, based at least in part upon a userinteraction with a user interface. For example, where module 542displays an image map of a scene which includes an image map of anobject, generated based on a low-resolution point cloud of the object,on a display interface, module 544 can receive a user command toimplement a high-resolution scan of a limited region of the field ofview in which the object is located based on a user interaction with theportion of the image map, of the scene, in which the object is located.In some embodiments, the module 544 can register receipt of certain usercommands based on user interaction with various user interfaces,including audio commands received via an audio interface, commandsreceived via a keyboard interface, etc. module 540 can forward thereceived user commands to module 524, where module 524 can controlvarious elements of the light beam scanning device based at least inpart upon the user commands.

FIG. 6 illustrates configuring a light beam scanning device to scan alight beam having a dynamically-adjustable divergence within a scanrange of the device, according to some embodiments. The configuring canbe implemented with regard to any or all of the embodiments describedabove. Configuring the light beam scanning device can include modifyingat least a portion of a light beam scanning device, assembly of a lightbeam scanning device, etc. The light beam scanning device can include alight detecting and ranging (LIDAR) device.

At 602, a light beam emitter, also referred to herein as an emitterdevice, is installed in a light beam scanning device. Such installationcan include coupling the emitter device to a structural frame of thelight beam scanning device, electrically coupling the emitter device toan electrical power source, etc. The light beam emitter can include alaser emitter, including a laser diode, which can emit a laser lightbeam. The light beam emitted by the emitter device can include one ormore of a continuously-emitted light beam, a sequence of light beampulses, where the sequence of pulses can be determined, some combinationthereof, etc.

At 604, a scanner device is installed in the light beam scanning device.Such installation can include coupling the scanner device to astructural frame of the light beam scanning device, electricallycoupling the scanner device to an electrical power source, etc. Thescanner device can be coupled at a location in the light beam scanningdevice which is at least partially intersected by the beam pathway ofthe light beam emitted by the emitter device. The scanner device caninclude, in some embodiments, a reflecting device, including a mirrordevice, which can be adjustably positioned in various orientations,based at least in part upon an action of an actuator device, to directthe light beam into one or more various directions within a field ofview external to the light beam scanning device. The actuator device canbe included in the scanner device. The range of directions into whichthe scanner device can direct the light beam, based on the range oforientations through which the scanner device can be adjustablypositioned, can be referred to as the scan range of the scanner device,the scan range of the light beam scanning device, the maximum field ofview of said device, some combination thereof, etc. The scanner devicecan be adjusted through a range of positions to “scan” a light beamthrough one or more regions of the scan range, including a particulardetermined field of view within the scan range.

At 606, a light detector device, also referred to herein as a detectordevice, detector, etc., is installed in the light beam scanning device.Such installation can include coupling the detector device to astructural frame of the light beam scanning device, electricallycoupling the detector device to an electrical power source, etc. Thedetector can include one or more sensor elements which can detect alight beam, and the detector can generate an output signal based ondetection of a light beam at one or more of the sensor elements of thedetector. The detector can detect a reflection of a light beam, directedinto the field of view, off of a surface of one or more objects locatedwithin the field of view. Based on such detection, the output signalgenerated by the detector can indicate a reflection point within thefield of view. In some embodiments, the detector determines at least adepth of the reflection point within the field of view based on a timeof flight of the light beam from at least a portion of the light beamscanning device to the surface on which the reflection point is located,Such determination can be based at least in part upon a correlation of atime at which a light beam, light beam pulse, etc. is emitted from theemitter device with a time at which a reflected light beam is detectedat the detector. In some embodiments, the output signal indicates anazimuth and elevation of the reflection point within the field of view,based at least in part upon the time of flight of the light beam to thereflection point, and a position of the scanner device concurrently withat least a portion of the time period during which the light beam isdirected by the scanner device into a particular direction within thefield of view. In some embodiments, the detector includes a singlesensor element.

At 608, a lens element assembly is installed in the light beam scanningdevice. Such installation can include coupling the lens element assemblyto a structural frame of the light beam scanning device, electricallycoupling the lens element assembly to an electrical power source, etc.The lens element assembly can include one or more lens elements whichcan be adjustably positioned to adjust a divergence of the light beamemitted by the emitter device. The lens elements assembly can be coupledto the light beam scanning device at a location intersected by the beampathway of the emitted light beam. Such a location can be locatedbetween the emitter device and the scanner device, such that the lenselement assembly is located “downstream” of the emitter device and“upstream” of the scanner device. The lens elements can include a set ofmultiple lens elements, one or more of which can be adjustablypositioned by action of one or more actuator elements. The actuatorelements can be included in the lens element assembly and can adjustablyposition one or more individual lens elements in a directional axiswhich is parallel with the beam pathway through the lens elementsassembly. As a result, one or more of the lens elements can beadjustably translated in parallel to the direction of the light beamthrough the assembly. One or more of the lens elements can adjustdivergence of the light beam in one or more cross sectional axes throughadjustable positioning of the respective lens elements. For example, thelens element assembly can include a first lens element which can beadjustably positioned, in parallel with the beam pathway, to adjust adivergence of the beam in a fast axis of the beam and a second lenselement which can be adjustably positioned, in parallel with the beampathway, to adjust a divergence of the beam in a slow axis of the beam.In some embodiments, the lens element assembly includes one or more lenselements which can be adjustably positioned to adjust divergence of thebeam in multiple cross sectional axes, including all cross sectionalaxes of the beam. In some embodiments, various lens elements in the lenselement assembly can be adjustably positioned independently of eachother. In some embodiments, the lens element assembly includes a lightcollimator which can at least partially collimate the light beam. Such alight collimator can be located on an “upstream” end of the lens elementassembly, such that light received from the emitter device passesthrough the light collimator prior to passing through one or more of thelens elements which can adjust divergence in one or more cross sectionalaxes of the light beam.

At 610, a controller device is installed in the light beam scanningdevice. Such installation can include coupling the controller device toa structural frame of the light beam scanning device, electricallycoupling the controller device to an electrical power source, etc. Suchinstallation can include communicatively coupling the controller deviceto one or more other elements of the light beam scanning device,including one or more of the emitter device, scanner device, detectordevice, lens element assembly, some combination thereof, etc. Thecontroller device can be included in one or more computer systems andcan generate command signals to one or more of the emitter device, lenselement assembly, scanner device, and detector to manage scanning of alight beam over at least a portion of the scan range of the light beamscanning device such that a field of view within the scan range can bemapped based on reflection points detected within the field of view.

FIG. 7 illustrates dynamically adjusting a divergence of a light beamscanned, by a scanner, over a field of view that is within a scan rangeof the scanner, according to some embodiments. Such dynamic adjustmentcan result in generation of a map of at least a portion of the scenelocated within the field of view, based at least in part upon a time offlight of the light beam to and from one or more points within the fieldof view. The dynamic adjustment can be implemented with regard to any ofthe above embodiments of the light beam scanning device by one or morecontroller devices. Such controller devices can be implemented by one ormore computer systems.

At 702, a field of view within a scan range of the light beam scanningdevice is determined. The field of view can include the entirety of thescan range, a limited region of the scan range, etc. The field of viewcan be determined based on a default range of angles through the scanrange and can indicate a range of directions through which the scannerdevice of the light beam scanning device can direct a light beam.

At 704, a divergence of the light beam is determined. The divergence,also referred to as “beam divergence”, can be determined as an angularvalue associated with one or more cross sectional axes of the lightbeam. Separate divergences can be determined in associated with separatecross sectional axes. For example, one divergence can be determined fora fast axis of the beam and another divergence can be determined foranother axis of the beam, including a slow axis. In some embodiments, acommon divergence is determined for all cross sectional axes of thebeam.

At 706, a scan rate of the scanner device is determined. The scan ratecan be based at least in part upon the determined field of view, thedetermined beam divergence(s), some combination thereof, etc. The scanrate can be associated with an angular step change in direction, in thefield of view, between separate directions into which the scannerdirects consecutive light beam pulses, thereby being associated with anangular change of the scanner device between directing consecutive beampulses into the field of view. In some embodiments, the scan rateindicates a rate at which the scanner device changes the direction ofthe directed light beam into the field of view. In some embodiments, thebeam divergence is determined at 704 based at least in part upon thefield of view and the scan rate.

At 708, a light beam is scanned through the determined field of view,based at least in part upon the determined beam divergence and scanrate. Such scanning can include controlling one or more elements of alens element assembly to adjust beam divergence of one or more crosssectional axes of the beam, controlling the direction into which thescanner device directs the beam, etc. Such scanning can includeimplementing one or more consecutive “scans” of the field of view,wherein at least the scanner device is controllably adjusted within atime period to sweep the light beam through one or more regions of thefield of view during the time period. Such scanning can follow aparticular scan pattern, such that the light beam is swept through theparticular scan pattern in the field of view within the time period.Where the light beam includes a sequence of beam pulses, the scannerdevice can be controllably adjusted to change orientation betweenconsecutive sets of beam pulses, such that the various beam pulses aredirected into different directions within the field of view according tothe scan pattern. Directing a light beam, beam pulses, etc. into thefield of view according to a scan pattern can result in an evendistribution of the light beam through the field of view during the timeperiod. One or more of the beam divergence and scan rate can be adjustedover time during a given scan of the determined field of view. Forexample, a scanning of the field of view can include a set of twoconsecutive and separate “scans” of the field of view according to aparticular scan pattern, where the lens element assembly is controllablyadjusted between consecutive scans to adjust the beam divergence, sothat the separate consecutive scans include separate scans of the lightbeam over the field of view at separate beam divergences. In someembodiments, one or more of the beam divergence, scan rate, etc. can beadjusted based on detection of one or more reflection points at adetector device included in the light beam scanning device.

At 710, a determination is made regarding whether one or more reflectionpoints are detected within the field of view, based at least in partupon an output from a detector device in the light beam scanning device.The output can include an indication that one or more reflection pointsare detected in the field of view and can include separate sets ofinformation associated with each of the separate reflection points,including one or more of a determined depth, azimuth, and elevation ofthe point within the field of view. If not, the scanning of the field ofview, at 708, can be repeated. If so, at 711, a first set of reflectionpoints are identified and selected. A “set” of reflection points can beidentified based on a correlation of the points, based on one or moresimilarities in associated properties of the various points, includingone or more of similar depth, azimuth, elevation, intensity, etc. withinthe field of view. Such separate sets of points can be associated withseparate objects located within a scene that is within the field ofview. At 712, a point cloud of the selected set of points is generated

At 716 and 718, if additional sets of reflection points are detected at710, a next set of points is determined and process 712-714 is repeatedrelative to the next set. If not, at 720, the generated point clouds areanalyzed to determine, at 722, whether the resolution of the pointclouds meet a sufficient threshold. Such a threshold can be based atleast in part upon the spot size of the reflection points, which can bebased on the beam divergence determined at 704, a comparison of one ormore point clouds with one or more predetermined objects in one or morepredetermined shapes, etc. In some embodiments, a determinationregarding whether a point cloud has sufficient resolution can be basedat least in part upon user input, a determination of whether at least aportion of the object is not mapped in the generated point cloud, etc.In some embodiments, a determination regarding whether a point cloud hassufficient resolution can be based at least in part upon the signal tonoise ratio of one or more of the reflection points correlated into thecloud. Such a signal to noise ratio can be determined based at least inpart upon the intensity of the reflection point. For example, where themapped object has a low reflectivity, reflection points detected as aresult of a scan with a wide-divergence beam may have low intensity,such that the signal to noise ratio of the reflection points in a pointcloud of the object is low. Based on such a determination of low signalto noise ratio, which can be a signal to noise ratio of one or morereflection points in the point cloud which is less than a thresholdradio, a determination can be made that the resolution of the pointcloud of the object is less than a threshold.

If, at 722, the resolution of the generated point clouds is determinedto be sufficient with regard to one or more thresholds, an image map ofone or more of the various objects is generated, at 724, based on thegenerated point clouds of the one or more objects. The image map caninclude an image of a scene that is located within the original field ofview at 702, where the image includes images of various objects withinthe scene which are generated based on the generated point clouds of therespective objects. In some embodiments, the image map is a 3D map ofone or more objects located within the original field of view 702,including a 3D map of some or all of a scene located within the originalfield of view. Based on the generating of the image map, one or moreobjects located within the image map can be identified and tracked overtime.

If at 722 and 726, a determination is made that a resolution of one ormore point clouds fails to meet one or more thresholds, one or more ofthe field of view, scan rate, and beam divergence are determined basedon the selected set of reflection points. The field of view can bedetermined as a limited region of the field of view determined at 702,where the limited region encompasses the limited region of the originalfield of view in which the set of reflection points are located. Thescan rate can be determined based at least in part upon a rate at whichthe light beam can be scanned through the new field of view, accordingto one or more scan patterns, within a given time period. The timeperiod can be a set period of time which is equivalent to the timeperiod in which a scan is implemented at 708, and can represent amaximum period of time in which a scan can be implemented. As such, insome embodiments, the new scan rate can be a minimum scan rate duringwhich the new field of view can be scanned within the given time period,according to one or more scan patterns. The beam divergence can bedetermined based at least in part upon the field of view, scan rate,etc. In some embodiments, the beam divergence is determined based atleast in part upon a determined depth of the selected set of reflectionpoints within the field of view. In some embodiments, the beamdivergence is determined such that the cross sectional area of the beamis adjusted according to a relationship between beam cross sectionalarea and one or more of the field of view size, scan rate, etc. Forexample, the beam divergence can be decreased according to decreases inthe field of view, scan rate, etc., such that overlap betweenconsecutive beam pulses directed into the new field of view isminimized. In some embodiments, beam divergence is adjusted based on adetermination that the resolution of a point cloud of an object is lessthan a threshold due to a low signal to noise ratio of the reflectionpoints in the cloud. Such adjustment of beam divergence can includenarrowing the beam divergence, so that reflection points on the objectcan have a greater intensity, and thus higher signal to noise ratio, dueto a smaller spot size of the beam reflecting off of the object. In someembodiments, one or more of the new divergence, field of view, and scanrate is the same as the previous divergence, field of view, scan rate,some combination thereof, etc. Upon the determination of the new scanrate, divergence, and field of view at 726, a new scan is implementedaccording to the determined scan rate, divergence, and field of view.

At 728, a determination is made whether to track one or more of theobjects detected within the field of view. Such a determination can bemade based at least in part upon identification of a detected object asbeing associated with a particular known object (e.g., a human face),receipt of particular user input commanding tracking of a particulardetected object (e.g., a command to track a ball), etc. If so, at 726, anew field of view, divergence, and scan rate can be determined based onthe location of the detected object within the field of view.

Example Computer System

FIG. 8 illustrates an example computer system 800 that may be configuredto include or execute any or all of the embodiments described above. Indifferent embodiments, computer system 800 may be any of various typesof devices, including, but not limited to, a personal computer system,desktop computer, laptop, notebook, tablet, slate, pad, or netbookcomputer, cell phone, smartphone, PDA, portable media device, mainframecomputer system, handheld computer, workstation, network computer, acamera or video camera, a set top box, a mobile device, a consumerdevice, video game console, handheld video game device, applicationserver, storage device, a television, a video recording device, aperipheral device such as a switch, modem, router, or in general anytype of computing or electronic device.

Various embodiments of a controller device, as described herein, may beexecuted in one or more computer systems 800, which may interact withvarious other devices. Note that any component, action, or functionalitydescribed above with respect to FIGS. 1 through 7 may be implemented onone or more computers configured as computer system 800 of FIG. 8,according to various embodiments. In the illustrated embodiment,computer system 800 includes one or more processors 810 coupled to asystem memory 820 via an input/output (I/O) interface 830. Computersystem 800 further includes a network interface 840 coupled to I/Ointerface 830, and one or more input/output devices 850, such as cursorcontrol device 860, keyboard 870, and display(s) 880. In some cases, itis contemplated that embodiments may be implemented using a singleinstance of computer system 800, while in other embodiments multiplesuch systems, or multiple nodes making up computer system 800, may beconfigured to host different portions or instances of embodiments. Forexample, in one embodiment some elements may be implemented via one ormore nodes of computer system 800 that are distinct from those nodesimplementing other elements.

In various embodiments, computer system 800 may be a uniprocessor systemincluding one processor 810, or a multiprocessor system includingseveral processors 810 (e.g., two, four, eight, or another suitablenumber). Processors 810 may be any suitable processor capable ofexecuting instructions. For example, in various embodiments processors810 may be general-purpose or embedded processors implementing any of avariety of instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as the x86,PowerPC, SPARC, or MIPS ISAs, or any other suitable ISA. Inmultiprocessor systems, each of processors 810 may commonly, but notnecessarily, implement the same ISA.

System memory 820 may be configured to store camera control programinstructions 822 and/or camera control data accessible by processor 810.In various embodiments, system memory 820 may be implemented using anysuitable memory technology, such as static random access memory (SRAM),synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), nonvolatile/Flash-type memory, or anyother type of memory. In the illustrated embodiment, programinstructions 822 may be configured to implement a beam divergencecontrol incorporating any of the functionality described above.Additionally, control data of memory 820 may include any of theinformation or data structures described above. In some embodiments,program instructions and/or data may be received, sent or stored upondifferent types of computer-accessible media or on similar mediaseparate from system memory 820 or computer system 800. While computersystem 800 is described as implementing the functionality of functionalblocks of previous Figures, any of the functionality described hereinmay be implemented via such a computer system.

In one embodiment, I/O interface 830 may be configured to coordinate I/Otraffic between processor 810, system memory 820, and any peripheraldevices in the device, including network interface 840 or otherperipheral interfaces, such as input/output devices 850. In someembodiments, I/O interface 830 may perform any necessary protocol,timing or other data transformations to convert data signals from onecomponent (e.g., system memory 820) into a format suitable for use byanother component (e.g., processor 810). In some embodiments, I/Ointerface 830 may include support for devices attached through varioustypes of peripheral buses, such as a variant of the Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI) bus standard or the Universal Serial Bus (USB)standard, for example. In some embodiments, the function of I/Ointerface 830 may be split into two or more separate components, such asa north bridge and a south bridge, for example. Also, in someembodiments some or all of the functionality of I/O interface 830, suchas an interface to system memory 820, may be incorporated directly intoprocessor 810.

Network interface 840 may be configured to allow data to be exchangedbetween computer system 800 and other devices attached to a network 885(e.g., carrier or agent devices) or between nodes of computer system800. Network 885 may in various embodiments include one or more networksincluding but not limited to Local Area Networks (LANs) (e.g., anEthernet or corporate network), Wide Area Networks (WANs) (e.g., theInternet), wireless data networks, some other electronic data network,or some combination thereof. In various embodiments, network interface840 may support communication via wired or wireless general datanetworks, such as any suitable type of Ethernet network, for example;via telecommunications/telephony networks such as analog voice networksor digital fiber communications networks; via storage area networks suchas Fibre Channel SANs, or via any other suitable type of network and/orprotocol.

Input/output devices 850 may, in some embodiments, include one or moredisplay terminals, keyboards, keypads, touchpads, scanning devices,voice or optical recognition devices, or any other devices suitable forentering or accessing data by one or more computer systems 800. Multipleinput/output devices 850 may be present in computer system 800 or may bedistributed on various nodes of computer system 800. In someembodiments, similar input/output devices may be separate from computersystem 800 and may interact with one or more nodes of computer system800 through a wired or wireless connection, such as over networkinterface 840.

As shown in FIG. 8, memory 820 may include program instructions 822,which may be processor-executable to implement any element or actiondescribed above. In one embodiment, the program instructions mayimplement the methods described above. In other embodiments, differentelements and data may be included. Note that data may include any dataor information described above.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computer system 800 ismerely illustrative and is not intended to limit the scope ofembodiments. In particular, the computer system and devices may includeany combination of hardware or software that can perform the indicatedfunctions, including computers, network devices, Internet appliances,PDAs, wireless phones, pagers, etc. Computer system 800 may also beconnected to other devices that are not illustrated, or instead mayoperate as a stand-alone system. In addition, the functionality providedby the illustrated components may in some embodiments be combined infewer components or distributed in additional components. Similarly, insome embodiments, the functionality of some of the illustratedcomponents may not be provided and/or other additional functionality maybe available.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that, while various itemsare illustrated as being stored in memory or on storage while beingused, these items or portions of them may be transferred between memoryand other storage devices for purposes of memory management and dataintegrity. Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of thesoftware components may execute in memory on another device andcommunicate with the illustrated computer system via inter-computercommunication. Some or all of the system components or data structuresmay also be stored (e.g., as instructions or structured data) on acomputer-accessible medium or a portable article to be read by anappropriate drive, various examples of which are described above. Insome embodiments, instructions stored on a computer-accessible mediumseparate from computer system 800 may be transmitted to computer system800 via transmission media or signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals, conveyed via a communication mediumsuch as a network and/or a wireless link. Various embodiments mayfurther include receiving, sending or storing instructions and/or dataimplemented in accordance with the foregoing description upon acomputer-accessible medium. Generally speaking, a computer-accessiblemedium may include a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium ormemory medium such as magnetic or optical media, e.g., disk orDVD/CD-ROM, volatile or non-volatile media such as RAM (e.g. SDRAM, DDR,RDRAM, SRAM, etc.), ROM, etc. In some embodiments, a computer-accessiblemedium may include transmission media or signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals, conveyed via a communication mediumsuch as network and/or a wireless link.

The methods described herein may be implemented in software, hardware,or a combination thereof, in different embodiments. In addition, theorder of the blocks of the methods may be changed, and various elementsmay be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. Variousmodifications and changes may be made as would be obvious to a personskilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. The variousembodiments described herein are meant to be illustrative and notlimiting. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvementsare possible. Accordingly, plural instances may be provided forcomponents described herein as a single instance. Boundaries betweenvarious components, operations and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in the context of specificillustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality areenvisioned and may fall within the scope of claims that follow. Finally,structures and functionality presented as discrete components in theexample configurations may be implemented as a combined structure orcomponent. These and other variations, modifications, additions, andimprovements may fall within the scope of embodiments as defined in theclaims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a light beam scanning device configured to scan a light beam, within a scan range, over a scene that is within a field of view of the scan range and generate an image map of at least a portion of the scene, based at least in part upon a time of flight of the light beam to and from one or more points within the scene, wherein the light beam scanning device comprises: a lens element assembly comprising a plurality of lens elements and configured to dynamically adjust a divergence and diameter of the light beam, such that a spot size of the light beam is adjusted, wherein at least one lens element of the plurality of lens elements is configured to be adjustable, in a direction parallel to a direction of the light beam, relative to at least one other lens element of the plurality of lens elements to dynamically adjust a diameter of the light beam along at least one axis of the light beam, relative to a diameter of the light beam along at least one other axis of the beam.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: to dynamically adjust a divergence of the light beam, the at least one lens element is configured to be translated relative to the at least one other lens element in a direction parallel to a direction of the light beam.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the at least one lens element is configured to be translated, in a direction parallel to a direction of the light beam, to dynamically adjust a diameter of the light beam along the at least one other axis of the light beam, relative to a diameter of the light beam along at least one axis of the light beam.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising: a scanner configured to scan the light beam, received from the lens element assembly, over a selected field of view of the scan range at one or more scan rates; and a controller device configured to control at least the lens element assembly to dynamically adjust the divergence of the light beam as the light beam is scanned over at least a portion of the selected field of view; wherein, to dynamically adjust the divergence of the light beam, such that the spot size of the light beam is adjusted, as the light beam is scanned over at least a portion of the selected field of view, the controller device is configured to control a position of at least a portion of the lens element assembly via at least one of: an open loop control process; or a closed loop control process.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lens element assembly comprises: an actuated optical element configured to condition the light beam, such that the spot size of the light beam is adjusted.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the actuated optical element comprises an actuated beam expander lens assembly.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the light beam scanning device comprises: a scanner configured to scan the light beam, received from the lens element assembly, over the field of view of the scan range; and a detector which is configured to receive the light reflected from at least a point within the field of view; and to generate the image map of at least a portion of the scene, the light beam scanning device is configured to determine at least a depth, azimuth, and elevation of the portion of the scene, relative to at least a portion of the light beam scanning device, based at least in part upon the time of flight of the light beam to and from the point, and an orientation of the scanner.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the lens element assembly is configured to dynamically adjust a divergence of the light beam, such that a spot size of the light beam is adjusted to a particular beam spot size, based at least in part upon at least one of: a selected beam spot size, of a set of predetermined beam spot sizes, or a particular beam spot size specified by a received beam spot size command.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light beam scanning device comprises a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) device.
 10. A method, comprising: dynamically adjusting a divergence of a light beam scanned, by a scanner, over a scene that is within a field of view of a scan range, such that a spot size of a beam spot of the light beam is dynamically adjusted, the dynamically adjusting comprising: adjusting at least one lens element, included in a lens element assembly located in a light beam pathway, relative to at least one other lens element of the lens element assembly, such that the lens element assembly adjusts the divergence of at least one axis of the emitted light beam, relative to a divergence of at least one other axis of the emitted light beam.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein adjusting at least one lens element included in a lens element assembly comprises: translating the at least one lens element in a direction parallel to a direction of the light beam and relative to the at least one other lens element in the lens element assembly directing the beam of light to be scanned, by the scanner, over a first field of view at a first scan rate and at a first divergence; and based at least in part upon a time of flight of the light beam to and from a particular portion of the scene within the first field of view, directing the beam of light to be scanned, by the scanner, over a second field of view at a second scan rate and at a second divergence, wherein the second field of view encompasses a limited region of the first field of view which includes the particular portion of the scene.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein directing the beam of light to be scanned, by the scanner, over a second field of view at a second scan rate and at a second divergence comprises: selecting the second scan rate and the second divergence based at least in part upon the time of flight of the light beam to and from the particular portion of the scene within the first field of view.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein adjusting the divergence of the light beam comprises adjusting the divergence of the at least one axis of the light beam to equal the divergence of the at least one other axis of the light beam.
 14. A method, comprising: configuring a light beam scanning device to scan a light beam having a dynamically-adjustable divergence, within a scan range, over a scene that is within a field of view of the scan range and generate a map of at least a portion of the scene, based at least in part upon a time of flight of the light beam to and from one or more points within the scene, wherein the configuring comprises: coupling a lens element assembly to at least a portion of the light beam scanning device, wherein: at least one lens element of the lens element assembly is configured to be adjustable relative to at least one other lens element of the lens element assembly; and the lens element assembly is configured to adjust the divergence of at least one axis of the emitted light beam, relative to a divergence of at least one other axis of the light beam.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein coupling the lens element assembly to at least a portion of the light beam scanning device comprises: coupling the lens element assembly to a location along a pathway of the light beam between a transmitter configured to emit the light beam and a scanner configured to scan the light beam over the field of view of the scan range.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein: the at least one lens element is configured to be adjusted along a directional axis which is parallel to a pathway of the light beam and relative to the at least one other lens element to adjust the divergence of the light beam.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuring the light beam scanning device comprises: coupling the lens element assembly to a controller device configured to adjust the at least one lens element based at least in part upon a time of flight of the light beam to and from one or more points within the scene.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the configuring comprises: coupling a detector to the light beam scanning device, wherein the detector is configured to receive the light reflected from at least a point within the field of view and generate an output indicating at least the time of flight of the light beam to and from the point, such that the light beam scanning device is configured to: determine at least a depth, azimuth, and elevation of the one or more points within the, relative to at least a portion of the light beam scanning device based at least in part upon the output generated by the detector and an orientation of the scanner; and adjust the divergence of the light beam based at least in part upon the depth, azimuth, and elevation of the one or more points within the scene. 